If anyone will be the undisputed protagonist of the next edition of BCNegra, it will be none other than Jo Nesbo (Oslo, 1960). The Norwegian writer will receive the Pepe Carvalho award on February 8, as confirmed by the curator of the crime novel festival, Carlos Zanón, and the councilor for culture and Cultural Industries, Xavier Marcé, from a clandestine cocktail bar near the cathedral. del Mar. The award will be presented next Thursday, February 8 at 6:00 p.m. in the Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Council.
“In a Nesbo book there is always one, two, three plot lines, careful documentation, which refers more to a curious spirit than to a writing official, the necessary dose of intrigue, action and psychology of the characters, as well as a look at its society that does not spare criticism of the still open wounds of a past that not everyone wants to accept,” defended Zanón, who insists that, with this award, the jury not only recognizes the author’s career, but, also, “the way of rewarding what the Nordic novel meant to the genre.”
Author translated into more than 40 languages, Nesbo marked a before and after in the genre with his first book, The Bat (1997), with which he won the Riverton Prize for the best Norwegian crime novel and the Glassnøkkelen Prize for the best crime novel from the Nordic countries. In his pages, Inspector Harry Hole appeared for the first time, his fictional alter ego and with whom he brings the reader closer to the culture of his country.
In addition to announcing the recognition of Nesbo, Zanón has advanced the festival program, which will be held from February 5 to 11 and will feature more than 50 activities, carried out in three different settings: the La Paloma room, the Jaume Fuster library and Forest cinemas.
Spies and the idea of ??intimacy in the virtual world will be the main threads of this edition, which will be attended by national authors, such as José Ovejero, Eduardo Mendoza or Victoria González; and internationals, such as Chris Offutt, Alan Parks or Nesbo himself, among others.
“Until not so long ago, anyone who read spy novels was an eccentric, but geopolitics, terrorism, bloc politics and what is happening in democratic societies has made the spy, the one who lives together as one of us, “To betray our secrets, he becomes a current character. And this is something that literature has not hesitated to capture,” Zanón pointed out.
Like every year, the literary event will feature a writer, a character and a book, which will be discussed at different tables. The first is the Japanese Seicho Matsumoto and his entire work. As the protagonist, the detective Lònia Guiu, by Maria Antònia Oliver, will stand out. And as for the work, the one chosen is L’espia que tornava del fred, by John Le Carré.
